{"id":7968,"date":"2022-06-15T22:59:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T21:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7968"},"modified":"2022-06-15T22:59:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T21:59:07","slug":"x-men-red-3-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7968","title":{"rendered":"X-Men Red #3 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN RED vol 2 #3<\/strong>
\n“Loss”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Al Ewing<\/strong>
\nArtist: Stefano Caselli<\/strong>
\nColourists: Federico Blee & Fernando Sifuentes<\/strong>
\nLetterer & production: Ariana Maher<\/strong>
\nDesigners: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Magneto fights Tarn. This is misdirection – the fight does happen in the issue, but it doesn’t go anything like this.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Cable is resurrected.<\/em><\/p>\n

The opening four panels are Cable’s life flashing before his eyes, presumably as his memories are downloaded back into him. From left to right, we have a panel of Nathan as a baby, presumably being held by his mother Madelyne Pryor. It\u00a0could<\/em> be Jean Grey, who looked after him for a while, but we can see Wolverine’s hand in the foreground, which strongly suggests that it’s very soon after his birth. Next is the Kid Cable from the recent solo series, followed by the classic Cable in his Liefeld costume, and finally Cable dying in the previous issue (though come to think of it, he shouldn’t remember that).<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.<\/strong>\u00a0Cable and Thunderbird.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since issue #1, Thunderbird has switched to the new costume that debuted in\u00a0Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Predictably, Cable has quickly figured out that Abigail Brand isn’t to be trusted, and is back working with Manifold (who quit Brand’s X-Men Red team instantly last issue). Note that Cable is using his “stealth arm” to conceal their discussion; on page 1, he says that he specifically asked Hope to bring him back with this equipment, which suggests that he was always expecting to get killed on one of Brand’s missions.<\/p>\n

Thunderbird’s interest in all this is less immediately obvious, though he’s clearly taken against Brand in a big way. And quite right too. This scene seems to be telling us that his argument with Cable in issue #1 was staged to provide material for Cable’s cover – though Thunderbird insists that he meant everything he said.<\/p>\n

“You and Frost, you used Jimmy.”<\/strong> John is referring to the fact that his younger brother James was recruited into Emma Frost’s Hellions as the second Thunderbird, then went on to join Cable’s X-Force as Warpath. John is basically right that both Cable and Emma enlisted James to help with their own wider agendas, but James was keen to follow in his older brother’s footsteps anyway, as seen in\u00a0Classic X-Men<\/em> #3, where he was vowing revenge on Xavier for his brother’s death. In a sense, what John is glossing over is that\u00a0he<\/em> was the character most responsible for James going down this route. (Nobody else calls James “Jimmy” apart from John.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The title, “Loss”, refers primarily to the seat which Tarn holds on the Great Ring. According to\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.<\/em> #8, the holder is “consulted in dark times of humiliation and pain, when the world has fallen” (it forms part of a trinity with the seat of Victory and the seat of Stalemate). Tarn appears to have claimed this seat as a way of reminding of Arakkans of their loss\u00a0to him<\/em>. It also refers to Magneto’s speech about Anya, of course.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong> Data page – a poster announcing Vulcan’s challenge to Tarn, as foreshadowed last issue. Note that even though he’s on the Great Circle, Tarn is billed as “Enemy of Arakko.”<\/p>\n

In the corners are the words “Destroy Enemies” and “Defend the Land”, which sound a lot like the Arakkan counterparts of Krakoa’s “Murder No Man” and “Respect This Sacred Land” laws. If so, it’s interesting that there’s no mention of the third Krakoan law, “Make More Mutants.”<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-8.<\/strong> Storm confronts Abigail Brand.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is all largely self-explanatory – there’s even a footnote to\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>#8 for Storm’s previous fight with Tarn. We established in issue #1 that Vulcan is no longer acknowledged by the Shi’ar (and that he doesn’t like that at all).<\/p>\n

Abigail’s comments about “someone” having to act like royalty allude to Storm rejecting her “queen” role in issue #1. In fact, of course, it’s Abigail who seems to be acting like royalty here, receiving Storm in a throne room.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> Data page. Mentallo reports back to Abigail Brand on his attempts to surreptitiously scan Vulcan’s mind. Basically, he’s discovered the surface personality that the mystery aliens imposed on Vulcan, as first mentioned in Hickman’s\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #10, and recapped last issue. Mentallo suggests that he can train Vulcan to “make better use” of his powers against Tarn, and presumably this is where Vulcan winds up getting the idea for the creative use of his energy-absorption powers that we see later in the issue.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-13.<\/strong>\u00a0The Brotherhood discuss their next move.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Fisher King explains that Tarn is absolutely hated and that whoever kills him will be a national hero. Presumably there’s some strong cultural imperative which explains why these challenges have been brought exclusively in the Circle, instead of people just trying to kill Tarn. After all, while Tarn’s body-manipulation powers make him essentially unbeatable in a straight up fight, presumably he could still be shot from a distance.<\/p>\n

Storm says that killing Tarn and taking his seat “would have lessened me”, apparently because Tarn surrendered in their fight. This is slightly curious. Ora Serrata, in\u00a0Legion of X<\/em>, also seems to suggest that a duel can end by submission – and if the Arakkans\u00a0do<\/em> have a powerful urge to stick by the rules, presumably they wouldn’t kill Tarn after surrender for the same reason that they haven’t taken him out with a sniper rifle. Yet the Fisher King seems to be saying that Storm\u00a0could<\/em> have killed him and that it would have been recognised as a victory, suggesting that he doesn’t have any cultural problem with the idea. Or maybe he’s just willing to make an exception for Tarn.<\/p>\n

Magneto is understandably unsure about all this – not convinced that sticking a second Krakoan on the Great Ring is really the way forward, and perhaps worrying that this is all part of Abigail’s agenda anyway.<\/p>\n

“I hear it’s better if you’re an Omega-level mutant…”<\/strong> Though anyone\u00a0can<\/em> challenge for a seat on the Great Ring, we’ve been told that only Omega-level mutants have ever actually sat on the council.<\/p>\n

“I watched my daughter Wanda build our heaven…”<\/strong>\u00a0X-Men: Trial of Magneto<\/em> #5. Wanda isn’t strictly his daughter in current continuity, but that’s been glossed over on the grounds that he treated her as his daughter for long enough that he still thinks of her as such.<\/p>\n

Anya<\/strong> is Magneto’s daughter, killed by a lynch mob in the back-up strip in\u00a0Classic X-Men<\/em> #12. Since she died young, it was never established whether she was a mutant, but Magneto tells us here that she wasn’t – so despite the introduction of the Waiting Room, she cannot be resurrected.<\/p>\n

“You are on the Quiet Council, Ororo – you know the betrayals we’ve suffered.”<\/strong> Presumably referring to Inferno<\/em> and what the Council learned about Moira there.<\/p>\n

Sunspot\u00a0<\/strong>continues to refer to Magneto as “Headmaster” in reference to his period as mentor of the original New Mutants. He may be making the point that that was also a period where Magneto was trying to retire from action and settle down. And it didn’t stick.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-19.<\/strong>\u00a0Tarn versus Vulcan.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Your silly Krakoan eggs.”<\/strong> Resurrection, as seen on page 1. Tarn is also indirectly reminding us that the Arakkans appear not to have any equivalent of resurrection.<\/p>\n

“I never died.”<\/strong> Vulcan said this last issue too. Again, he’s referring to the end of\u00a0War of Kings<\/em>, where he lost the Shi’ar throne after being banished to the Fault. As Tarn picks up, Vulcan’s point is that he refuses to accept that he lost the throne.<\/p>\n

“Ororo’s bartender friend.”<\/strong> Roberto mentioned in issue #1 that he had bought the Red Lagoon bar.<\/p>\n

Khora of the Burning Heart<\/strong> was introduced into the cast of\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>but she’s drifted into the background for a while. That’s probably what she’s referring to when she says that she “miss[es] feeling useful”.<\/p>\n

“Didn’t you bring a knife? Who taught you to fight?”<\/strong> Tarn is referring to the way Storm beat him in\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>#8. But he asks a good question. If the plan was always for them to cancel each other’s powers out, and bringing weapons is allowed, why\u00a0didn’t<\/em> Abigail just get him to bring a gun? Did she\u00a0really<\/em> think that Vulcan would win this fight, or was she just hoping that he would create an opening? She certainly seems pretty relaxed watching the fight on page 19.<\/p>\n

“Praise Tarn.”<\/strong> Tarn’s followers in\u00a0Hellions<\/em> said this a lot.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-24.<\/strong>\u00a0Magneto versus Tarn.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m… not convinced Roberto’s plan here works, for a couple of reasons. One, Isca’s power, as defined, is that she can never lose. That doesn’t necessarily mean that she can force her side to win; Hickman’s back story for her makes some play of the fact that she switched sides when Arakko was going to lose the war, because when she couldn’t actually bring about a victory, her power compelled her to join the winning side. If you could manipulate her powers like this then that part of her back story wouldn’t make sense. In fairness, though, that seems to be what she’s yelling about to Storm – that if this does indeed work, what does it say about her that she fought alongside Tarn for so long after her defection?<\/p>\n

Two, more fundamentally, she never accepts the bet.<\/p>\n

Still, killing off Tarn – who was a big deal in\u00a0Hellions<\/em> – is a bold move. And I think probably a smart one since he was overpowered and didn’t necessarily fit in the direction of this book.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25. <\/strong>Trailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN RED vol 2 #3 “Loss” Writer: Al Ewing Artist: Stefano Caselli Colourists: Federico Blee & Fernando Sifuentes Letterer & production: Ariana Maher Designers: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1: Magneto fights Tarn. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7970,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968\/revisions\/7970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}